Review 491: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season 4)

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. hits a new high in its fourth season, exploring darker territory all the while amping up the thrills and the emotional stakes.

In the light of the Sokovia Accords and with Hydra obliterated, S.H.I.E.L.D. is legitimatized again and no longer needs to operate in the shadows.

Since the world believes that Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) is dead, the organization comes under the leadership of a new director Jeffrey Mace (Jason O’Mara) who also acts as the new face of the organization.

Coulson finds himself back in the role as an agent teamed up with Mack (Henry Simmons) and together, they are tasked with tracking down and confirming the presence of enhanced individuals aka Inhumans.

They have been trying to track down and capture former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Daisy Johnson/Quake (Chloe Bennet) who has gone rogue in an attempt to atone for sins from the past. But with the world believing that Daisy is a dangerous outlaw who has taken down banks and bridges, Director Mace has no qualms about taking her down for good.

Agent May (Ming-Na Wen) is tasked with training special strike teams and Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) have taken a big step forward in their relationship. But with Simmons’ new promotion as Special Advisor to the Director in Science and Technology, Fitz, as well as her former team members find it hard to confide in or trust her since she’s now the Director’s confidant.

Meanwhile, Robbie Reyes/Ghost Rider (Gabriel Luna) roars into the lives of Coulson and his team as a junkyard mechanic who can turn a dime into the terrifying Spirit of Vengeance. Will Robbie be a friend or foe to S.H.I.E.L.D. – as well as the world itself? All the while, Fitz discovers that socially awkward genius and friend Dr. Holden Radcliffe (John Hannah) has started putting the finishing touches on a new, secret invention.

At the start of the Season, we're presented with a very different status quo for S.H.I.E.L.D. in light of the six month time skip that concluded Season 3 and not everything has changed for the better:
The team is spit up, Fitz is now keeping lies from Simmons, Coulson is no longer the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the person whose replaced him doesn't appear to have a lot love for his ragtag team.
Then there's Daisy whose in a very dark place and has become so determined not to lose another person close to her that she's now gone solo and is operating as a vigilante, dubbed "Quake" by the press and is even evading Coulson's attempts to bring her in.

One of the ingenious decisions made this season was to split it into segments or “Pods” as they are referred to. Showrunners, Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tanchareon & Jeffrey Bell understand that 22 episodes is a long time to hold a big bad or single storyline even and breaking the season down into segments makes it far easier to digest: They can introduce a big bad or a certain element. Then something happens at the climax of that pod and they introduce something new.

Each pod is structured based on its airing schedule. Ghost Rider makes up the first eight. LMD (Life Model Decoy) for the next seven episodes and finally Agents of Hydra for the final seven. These key changes allowed Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to delve deeper into its introduction of Ghost Rider and exploration of artificial intelligence to successful results.  

Each “Pod” has its own distinct tone though elements and characters bleed into them: Ghost Rider focuses on the team teaming up with Ghost Rider to deal with a new mystical threat.

LMD focuses on the emergence of Life Model Decoys (LMD) and Radcliffe and Aida’s experiments with artificial intelligence take a dark turn when the Darkhold became involved. It also felt like a natural continuation of the theme from Avengers: Age of Ultron of diving into the world of A.I. 

And finally Agents of Hydra takes the characters into the virtual reality of the Framework which shows them living very different lives from the ones in the real world. Each “Pod” proved to be stronger than the last with the Framework arc being my personal favourite of the season.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Ghost Rider winds up being a far superior Ghost Rider film than either of the two Nicholas Cage Ghost Rider put together. By introducing Ghost Rider into the mix, the showrunners open up a quarter of the Marvel Universe that the show hasn’t really spent a lot of time exploring and become a lot more experimental. S.H.I.E.L.D. has primarily been a science-based show so delving into the realm of magic and the supernatural was a bold move. Luckily, the writers swung for the fence and the gamble paid off. There was also a refreshingly darker tone with Ghost Rider and a bit more blood thrown in for good measure, clearly taking a page from its young albeit more mature cousin Daredevil on Netflix.

The show also continues its tradition of finding new combinations, conflicts and dynamics between different sets of characters. Parings explored this season include Coulson and Mack, continuing from the end of Season 3, who have developed a mutual respect for each other due to their relationships with Daisy. Leo Fitz and Holden Radcliffe grown closer through their work together.
The relationship between Fitz and Simmons is also explored more by examining the new challenges it presents for the two working together, loving each other and living together. 

Thematically, this season seems to be about Identity and Reality: It explores wether or not you're an inherent "true you" or just a sum of your experiences, regrets and memories which is something loads of viewers can identify with. 

The Agents of Hydra pod explores "What If" scenarios for many of cast of the show which is an excellently terrific way to celebrate 80+ episodes with these people.

The world the Framework has created has been built on a lie

The idea of being able to fix one regret is bought to the forefront of the Framework arc:

We see Coulson and Mack allowed to live normal lives because of one small change to their lives which means they never joined S.H.I.E.L.D. And because May never killed Kataya Belyakov it means dire consequences for the world in which now inhabit and gives the opportunity Hydra has been waiting for to take over.

The Season is also affected by the events of Captain America: Civil War and sees S.H.I.E.L.D. legitimatised. How do you deal with a war with powered people at a government level?

There were some drawbacks with Ghost Rider/L.M.D./Framework arcs. The Darkhold-affected ghostly scientists looked a little goofy and Robbie’s evil uncle Eli Morrow (Jose Zuniga) wasn’t a particularly standout villain. The same can be said for Anton Ivanov/Superior despite Zach McGowan’s best efforts to imbue the character with menace. Ivanov was just a painfully generic Russian villain with a painfully generic motivation for hating Inhumans and blaming Coulson for Earth’s extraterrestrial problems to boot. Up close to Coulson’s team, he really is rather pathetic But Mallory Jansen’s Aida more than makes up for it. Luckily, Ivanov’s characterisation improved during the Agents of Hydra pod. Having been crippled in a fight with Daisy, Aida  turning him into a riff on M.O.D.O.K. 

Directors Billy Gierhart, Vincent Misiano, Brad Turner, Kate Woods, Jesse Bocho, Kevin Tanchareon, Garry A. Brown, Wendy Stanzler, Eric Laneuville and Oz Scott's direction is 

The visual effects are stellar and some of the best the show’s had to offer.  The show really does belong to affects supervisor Mark Kolpack and his team. 

The season also explores Daisy's guilt over Lincoln Campbell's death at the end of Season 3. His death cuts her deep. She's in a very dark. She's mourning. She cares about the team so much that she feels like she's protecting them by pushing them away because she feels like everything bad happens around her and that she can't help but cause problems. Her way of taking care of the people she cares about is not the best thing. Physically, she's not in the best of shapes as she's using her powers without S.H.I.E.L.D. monitoring to contain and help her grow her powers.

Wen had plenty of moments to shine as LMD May 

 

Ultimately, Holden Radcliffe is quite a tragic figure as all he wants to do is improve humanity and end suffering through the use of the Framework, it's just that he is methods are questionable to say the least.

All of the guest stars from Gabriel Luna and Jason O’Mara to Parminder Nagra and Natalia Cordova-Buckley were firing on all cylinders. Even Brett Dalton returns as a Framework version of Grant Ward. What better way to show that you’ve been dropped into an alternate reality which might not be everything you imagined than the return of the one of the shows most loved and hated characters!

Gabriel Luna is the true find this season as Robbie Reyes/Ghost Rider. Once a simple mechanic who was trying to look after for his younger brother Gabe (Lorenzo James Henrie). One fatal mistake lead to an accident which left Gabe paralysed and Robbie getting possessed by the spirit of vengeance.

Jason O'Mara is also a simply inspired addition to the show as the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Jeffrey Mace

But it’s Mallory Jansen’s Aida who is the real MVP of the season, she absolutely steals every scene she is in. Aida starts out as something that’s only supposed to mimic and she slowly discovers her agenda along the way as the season progresses.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season 4) is the show at it's best, 4.5/5.

The Anonymous Critic.